Chapter 7
With his mother’s help, the oil peddler tied the sleeping Yumo onto a cart.
Perhaps she had fainted from hunger. She never woke along the way, only letting out a faint moan when he hoisted her over his shoulder.
In the gentleman’s courtyard, a fire had been lit. Oil, salt, and slicing knives stood ready beside it. After three years of drought, all the livestock were dead; even the gentleman had gone a long time without tasting meat.
He had paid so dearly for a beautiful woman to sample the supposedly succulent delicacy called “better than lamb.”
I stood silently in a corner, waiting for the long night to end.
When the rooster crowed, my promise of three days would be fulfilled.
Meanwhile, the others sharpened their knives. Gradually, Yumo awoke. What could she fail to understand about the scene before her?
Still clinging to a final shred of hope, she cried pitifully to the oil peddler.
“Ah Lang—how can you do this to me?”
Busy binding her hands behind her back, he still found time to argue. “You were a whore. I let you be the mistress of my household for three whole days. You should be satisfied!”
As they fastened her to a raised platform, Yumo could not help sobbing. “Have you forgotten? You begged me!”
“You begged me to be your wife!”
The oil peddler turned and spat. “Pah! You seduced me first. None of this is my fault!”
Facing the others’ mocking gazes, he added defiantly,
“Besides, didn’t you enjoy it too?”
By branding her a slut, he absolved himself of everything. Yumo, meanwhile, was condemned beyond redemption.
She stopped struggling and slumped against the wooden frame, her face ashen.
Those dim eyes stared blankly at the sky, as though she had accepted her fate.
With everyone adding wood, the flames rose quickly. Waves of heat began licking at the hem of her dangling clothes. Just as she twisted away, struggling in terror…
A rooster crowed in the distance, announcing the end of the third day.
It was time for me to leave.
Without a backward glance, I turned and climbed the high wall.
But the instant I jumped down, a desperate cry rose behind me.
“Hua Nu!”
“Hua Nu!”
“Take me!”
“Take me with you!”
Crack!
A bamboo branch shot down from above, sending a shower of sparks into the air.
With my strength, I quickly dealt with the household servants who surrounded me. I had just freed Yumo when something suddenly tugged at my sleeve.
The oil peddler had grabbed me. Usually a coward who preyed on the weak, he was now brimming with righteous indignation.
“She’s my wife!”
I punched him.
“And I’m your father!”
Blood poured from his nose.
His lips worked as though he still had something to say. Then he met my fierce stare. “I could kill ten scrawny runts like you with one punch!”
Terrified, he let go. He could only watch me fling Yumo over my shoulder.
I fought my way out and left them behind.